News Tiana's Bayou Adventure - latest details and construction progress

[davis_unoxx]

Serious question for those who are bothered by the criticism. If the posts referencing politics were disregarded (as they should be), and you were left reading the posts of those who are critical of the redo, what reason do you have to be troubled by it?

Disney invited the expression of opinion by releasing the video. They had to expect a response. And that response is mixed at best.

The end result is negative comments from many, with a large number going beyond simply saying "this stinks" to explaining exactly why they think so.

So why is that troubling? Why do you have problems with others being negative about this? If the number of "complainers" is so small, part of an insignificant echo chamber, why protest the expression of opinion at all? What does it matter?

If the discussion here sounds familiar, it's because two other very recent high-profile projects were talked about here and elsewhere in very similar terms. Starcruiser and Harmonious. Both outlandishly costly to build, both shuttered in short order after marketing mishaps and scathing online criticism.

Disney put out the video knowing the stakes were high and the response has been less than glowing, so much so that mainstream media is already picking up the story.

If you disagree with the criticism, simply try to explain *why* you like the new ride in as much detail as those who are criticizing it. But don't simply deride the negativity or the manner in which it is expressed.

Agreed, a lot of them bashed any of us saying it would be a tall order for Tiana to reach the status of Splash Mountain.

Have you seen the Jenny Nicholson video about the star cruiser released two weeks ago?

It’s right up your alley. It’s a 4 hour video with 7 million views on YouTube criticizing Disney specialties Josh as well.

She even critizes the Disney Parks influencers on how they have to follow certain guidelines by Disney and say the official name of rides like “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.” Probably one of the most entertaining videos I’ve ever seen, even criticizes Josh D’marro’s lightsaber abilities with the Star Cruiser marketing.

 

[Virtual Toad]

Agreed, a lot of them bashed any of us saying it would be a tall order for Tiana to reach the status of Splash Mountain.

Have you seen the Jenny Nicholson video about the star cruiser released two weeks ago?

It’s right up your alley. It’s a 4 hour video with 7 million views on YouTube criticizing Disney specialties Josh as well.

She even critizes the Disney Parks influencers on how they have to follow certain guidelines by Disney and say the official name of rides like “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.” Probably one of the most entertaining videos I’ve ever seen, even criticizes Josh D’marro’s lightsaber abilities with the Star Cruiser marketing.

Saw it. Loved it. Agreed with many of her points. Her criticisms, especially those concerning lofty promises followed by questionable execution, mirror the current criticism of TBA in many ways.

 

[bwr827]

So I’m still working on this general public idea.

What about this ride is appealing to the general public that the hard core fans are missing?

Why not build everything to the quality level of Nemo, if the only thing about a ride that matters is that it’s located in a Disney park.

The ride has no story.

The ride has no buildup to the drop.

Most people won’t even understand they have been shrunk and just confused as to what the heck is going on.

The music is not memorable like its predecessor.

Yea they will all scream on the drop and laugh when they get wet. But if that all that’s needed to make this ride a success why not just rip out all the theming to save on the maintenance costs.

The ride has a story…it’s pretty simple and the dialogue talks you through it.

The music is pretty catchy. I’m not super familiar with it yet, but I expect I’ll be humming along soon enough.

The animatronics look great to me. The old ones looked kind of ratty.

I think the shrinking part is a really fun idea.

I agree Nemo is not a good ride.

 

[davis_unoxx]

Saw it. Loved it. Agreed with many of her points. Her criticisms, especially those concerning lofty promises followed by questionable execution, mirror the current criticism of TBA in many ways.

Yes absolutely, she is fantastic.

As a former CM like her, I loved her criticism of the influencers. I’ve seen firsthand how Disney bends over backwards for them.

I remember one shift I was working a little boy was super excited to meet the influencers, they imitated him the second they left. These same influencers I saw again when I transferred hotelside getting free food from Disney when they were “reviewing” the new Palm Breeze Bar at Disneyland Hotel.

Funniest thing is there bubbly annoying personality goes off the second the camera is off, and they look like the most miserable people I’ve ever met.

 

[ChrisFL]

No more FSU gopher.

That's a plus

 

[TheCoasterNerd]

Hey Pro said that not all the AAs are installed so since apparently they're so right all the time we've got something to look forward to this winter
/s

 

[monothingie]

While executive meddling can be a problem, it’s not responsible for ruining everything. There have been fantastic rides to come out of Imagineering’s wheelhouse over the past decade. Shanghai Pirates. Rise. Cosmic Rewind. Flight of Passage. Frozen Journey. Even Mission: Breakout (due in no small part to Joe Rhode).

Now they do have misfires. I’d say Frozen: Ever After, Test Track 2.0, Soarin’ Around the World, Iron Man Experience (Hong Kong), WEB Slingers, and now Tiana’s are all poorly executed for their scale and what they are trying to do. None of them are awful, but they definitely do not have the spark many other attractions or their similar iterations have had.

But they’ve had misfires before too from Nemo and current Figment at EPCOT to Kalli River Rapids and Mermaid. Perhaps misfire isn’t the right word, but it’s like “missing the mark.”

While it’s obviously a much better ride than Fast and Furious: Supercharged, the nature of this retheme really goes back to an executive mandate like TBA is. That’s a mistake Universal has learned from.

It will be interesting to see if Disney will do the same because this ride, well, definitely misses the mark on the humor, conflict, and adventure front the ride should deliver on.

If you believe Disney when they say TBA started in earnest in 2019, how is it possible that this uninspired and simplistic fetch quest storyline took 5 years to come to life?

They didn’t have to design the ride system or build the show building, it was a reskin and update of an existing attraction.

So what took them so long? Either it was gross incompetence at WDI and the team running this (believable) or there were so many chefs in the kitchen providing direction on this from multiple places in the company, that the end product turned out to be crap. (Or both)

 

[ChrisFL]

Spoiler: Alternate POV not made by Disney

New POV shared on Youtube by someone at a preview. Much better video than Disney produced, shot during the day, and all of the speaking lines appear to be the alternate set. Dare I say it works better? I wasn't a hater but this at least looks a little better than the first video we've all seen.

Ok, I planned to wait to see it in person but with so much discourse going on, I decided to watch this one and to me the ride is....fine? I mean, no it isn't as good as Splash was, but it's not a complete travesty from what I'm seeing. Now I will need to wait to ride it myself to really see if there are a lot of things just empty, difficult to tell on POV ride-thrus sometimes.

 

[basas]

I’ve read the last 50 or so pages. My expectations were low, but this new ride is terrible. It’s a complete embarrassment. .And while I’m sure the new ride will be popular because log flumes are fun, if story and music don’t matter to a ride there is likely a log flume with a 50 foot drop at your local amusement park you can ride for a lot cheaper. They’ve essentially replaced a ride that appealed to the entire family with one that looks and sounds as though it was geared towards preschoolers (but with a height requirement and “thrill aspect”). Doesn’t make a lot of sense…



As a longtime Disney fan who loved Splash Mountain I certainly have one less reason (among many others) to visit. As a shareholder I’m livid that this is the crap the company is choosing to spend money on as attendance falls and money is tight. The stock has been a disaster for the past couple of years. Disney clearly doesn’t need or want fans like me.

What the company has done to this franchise, the characters, the stories, the music and the actors is a disgrace. Yes, I am angry. I am thankful I had one last trip that was planned specifically to visit Splash before its closure.

 

[Casper Gutman]

I still support the idea that replacing SotS was absolutely justified.

But I haven't felt like this since they destroyed EPCOT in the late 90s.



All that said, you don't need SotS to give the ride edge, tension, humor. All of those could have been present in the new version. The lack of them can be attributed to a lot of factors, but a major one is a corporation terrified of offending guests of ANY political persuasion, not just from one side or the other. It's the same cowardice that prevents the development of a new vision for EPCOT, that makes everything bland and safe.

 

[davis_unoxx]

I’ve read the last 50 or so pages. My expectations were low, but this new ride is terrible. It’s a complete embarrassment. And while I’m sure the new ride will be popular because log flumes are fun, if story and music don’t matter to a ride there is likely a log flume with a 50 foot drop at your local amusement park you can ride for a lot cheaper.


As a longtime Disney fan who loved Splash Mountain I certainly have one less reason (among many others) to visit. As a shareholder I’m livid that this is the crap the company is choosing to spend money on as attendance falls and money is tight. The stock has been a disaster for the past couple of years. Disney clearly doesn’t need or want fans like me.

What the company has done to this franchise, the characters, the stories, the music and the actors is a disgrace. Yes, I am angry. I am thankful I had one last trip that was planned specifically to visit Splash before its closure.

Agreed, the closest Iger and his pals get to normal people is when he lands into Nantucket Harbor on his yacht and has to walk by the deckhand tying up his ship.

 

[flynnibus]

A good chunk of the ride control system was replaced during this. Remember seeing pictures of rockwork opened up at random spots? Sensors and and other things were in there.

I think people should take note of all the changes to the evacuation paths, the new walls, etc. Clearly they had a focus on 'updating' the ride system in ways.

 

[Ghost93]

I still support the idea that replacing SotS was absolutely justified.

But I haven't felt like this since they destroyed EPCOT in the late 90s.



All that said, you don't need SotS to give the ride edge, tension, humor. All of those could have been present in the new version. The lack of them can be attributed to a lot of factors, but a major one is a corporation terrified of offending guests of ANY political persuasion, not just from one side or the other. It's the same cowardice that prevents the development of a new vision for EPCOT, that makes everything bland and safe.

I share a similar sentiment. I believe that the Song of the South theme needed to go and that Princess and the Frog was a perfect IP to retheme it with.

Unfortunately, the execution of the Tiana ride was a complete miss. While using the SOTS theme at all in the first place was a mistake, that theme was executed as well as it could have been and I do believe Splash Mountain was a great ride and one of the great Disney imagineering achievements. A Princess and the Frog retheme of Splash Mountain COULD HAVE and SHOULD HAVE been great as the film had all of the right ingredients for it — a solid cast of character characters, great music, humor, tension, and a nice message. But Tiana's Bayou Adventure has a very weak story with no tension, no funny bits, repetitive and terrible dialogue and no strong messages beyond "everyone is special."

 

[doctornick]

Actually we just gave TDO a great idea.

For a small upcharge you will receive a VR headset and get to experience Splash Mountain instead!

We just need waterproof VR.

Very honestly, I don’t expect I’ll ever buy ILL but if Disney did this I’d absolutely spend the money to do it. Obviously they wouldn’t but it would be great to have that option.

 

[ChrisFL]

It looks like the biggest issue is the lack of details that Splash Mountain had everywhere.

The story is another thing but I also know there's a lot of armchair imagineers who talk about how "many of the original favorites didn't have an overall story but just a theme" when it comes to Haunted Mansion and Pirates, etc..

Splash had a complete story, even if a lot of people probably didn't understand what it all meant.

 

[celluloid]

Objectively.

A convoluted difference of what has been touted since early on.
A lot of non sequitor and odd pacing.
Objectively, most.so far have said the previous attraction served the art better.

 

[basas]

It looks like the biggest issue is the lack of details that Splash Mountain had everywhere.

The story is another thing but I also know there's a lot of armchair imagineers who talk about how "many of the original favorites didn't have an overall story but just a theme" when it comes to Haunted Mansion and Pirates, etc..

Splash had a complete story, even if a lot of people probably didn't understand what it all meant.

I still think the problem is that they replaced a ride that appealed to the entire family with one that has a story and dialogue geared towards preschool girls…and this on a ‘thrill’ ride with a height requirement.

Although some posters don’t seem to understand, Disney is not just for kids. That’s not the way to create lifelong fans who then want to take their kids and grandkids. They seem to be catering to the crowd that visits Disney because they have children and then can check it off the list (one and done).

 

[MagicHappens1971]

As a longtime Disney fan who loved Splash Mountain I certainly have one less reason (among many others) to visit. As a shareholder I’m livid that this is the crap the company is choosing to spend money on as attendance falls and money is tight. The stock has been a disaster for the past couple of years. Disney clearly doesn’t need or want fans like me.

Disney has proven that infusing IP (whether you like it or not) drives revenue. If you are so concerned as a shareholder you should be happy to know this attraction will be printing money in merch sales.

 

[Figgy1]

So I don’t get into the whole problematic thing since I have better things to do with my life.

That being said, can someone explain to me in a way you would to an 8th grader why Facilier is a problem and couldn’t be used in the ride ?

Maybe just me but I don't see that merch flying off shelves

 

[basas]

Their most popular ride? Very very debatable. Secondly, to strictly make a political statement? No. WDI/DPEP's mandate from Burbank is to infuse IP, Tiana was an appropriate IP to replace this flume attraction with.

Disney has proven that infusing IP (whether you like it or not) drives revenue. If you are so concerned as a shareholder you should be happy to know this attraction will be printing money in merch sales.

They will delete your post because it is in clear violation of the terms and services. SotS is basically an unknown IP to 95% of the General Public. I can guarantee you that up until Splash closed, you could ask 100 people exiting Splash if they knew where those characters came from and maybe 2 people would know. It is not a franchise, it is a movie that Disney locked in a vault decades ago. Again, as a shareholder you should be happy that Disney is adding modern IP that people are actually interested in to the parks.

How much did this project cost? I think we know the answer. Money well spent? I would argue no.

Using your logic we should close every attraction (and there are a lot of them), popular or not, to add “modern IP that people are actually interested in”.

Actually, your post to me summarizes the very thing wrong with current Disney management.